If a person suffers from urinary incontinence, for example, from stress urinary incontinence, then urine leakage can occur when abdominal pressure is applied during normal movement or by laughing, coughing, sneezing or the like. This can be caused, for example, by a fact that pelvic floor muscles which are muscles which support the urethra are loosened by birth or the like.
For the treatment of urinary incontinence, surgical therapy is effective, and for example, an elongated tape-shaped (elongated) implant called “sling” is used. The sling is dwelled into the body to support the urethra (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-99499). In order to indwell the sling, the operator incises the vagina wall with a scalpel, dissects a biological tissue between the urethra and the vagina and communicates the dissected region and the outside through an obturator foramen of the pelvis using a puncture needle to form a puncture hole. Then, the sling is indwelled into the body using such a puncture hole as just described.
However, if the vaginal wall is incised, the sling may be exposed to the inside of the vagina through a wound caused by the incision or that complications such as an infection from the wound can occur. Further, since the vaginal wall is incised, the invasion is relatively significant and the burden on the patient is relatively high. Further, the urethra or the like may be damaged by a scalpel during the manipulation by the operator, and the operator may be injured, for example, an operator's finger may be cut by a scalpel.
For example, in order to indwell a sling in a predetermined direction, it can be necessary to dissect the biological tissue by a considerably greater amount than the width of the sling. Therefore, there is a drawback that the burden on the patient is relatively significant.